Report identifies link between ADHD and sleep disorders

Recent research has revealed that young people who have been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood are more likely to develop sleep disorders.

Published in the May 1st issue of the Sleep journal and led by Dr Susan Shur-Fen Gau, associate professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health at National Taiwan University, the study found that 17 per cent of children with ADHD were exhibiting signs of primary insomnia.

Nightmare sleep disorder was experienced by 11 per cent of children with ADHD and this, along with other sleep disorders in children with ADHD, was attributed to a series of factors.

These were listed as hyperactivity, possible addiction to internet use, stimulant use or abuse and other psychiatric disorders.

Dr Gau commented: "In some patients with ADHD, symptoms are caused or exaggerated by primary sleep disorders, and therefore treatment of the sleep disorder will improve ADHD symptoms."

ADHD is a neurobehavioural developmental condition that affects up to five per cent of children throughout the world, with boys twice as likely to be diagnosed as girls.